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English Synonyms and Antonyms

<h3>IDEA.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>apprehension,</td><td>design,</td><td>impression,</td><td>plan,</td></tr> <tr><td>archetype,</td><td>fancy,</td><td>judgment,</td><td>purpose,</td></tr> <tr><td>belief,</td><td>fantasy,</td><td>model,</td><td>sentiment,</td></tr> <tr><td>conceit,</td><td>ideal,</td><td>notion,</td><td>supposition,</td></tr> <tr><td>concept,</td><td>image,</td><td>opinion,</td><td>theory,</td></tr> <tr><td>conception,</td><td>imagination,</td><td>pattern,</td><td>thought.</td></tr> </table> Idea is in Greek a form or an image. The word signified in early philosophical use the archetype or primal image which the Platonic philosophy supposed to be the model or pattern that existing objects imperfectly embody. This high sense has nearly disappeared from the word idea, and has been largely appropriated by ideal, tho something of the original meaning still appears when in theological or philosophical language we speak of the ideas of God. The present popular use of idea makes it to signify any product of mental apprehension or activity, considered as an object of knowledge or thought; this coincides with the primitive sense at but a single point—that an idea is mental as opposed to anything substantial or physical; thus, almost any mental product, as a belief, conception, design, opinion, etc., may now be called an idea. Compare FANCY; IDEAL. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>actuality,</td><td>fact,</td><td>reality,</td><td>substance.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>IDEAL.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>archetype,</td><td>model,</td><td rowspan="2">pattern,</td><td rowspan="2">prototype,</td><td rowspan="2">standard.</td></tr> <tr><td>idea,</td><td>original,</td></tr> </table> An ideal is that which is conceived or taken as the highest type of excellence or ultimate object of attainment. The archetype is the primal form, actual or imaginary, according to which any existing thing is constructed; the prototype has or has had actual existence; in the derived sense, as in metrology, a prototype may not be the original form, but one having equal authority with that as a standard. An ideal may be primal, or may be slowly developed even from failures and by negations; an ideal is meant to be perfect, not merely the thing that has been attained or is to be attained, but the best conceivable thing that could by possibility be attained. The artist's ideal is his own mental image, of which his finished work is but an imperfect expression. The original is the first specimen, good or bad; the original of a master is superior to all copies. The standard may be below the ideal. The ideal is imaginary, and ordinarily unattainable; the standard is concrete, and ordinarily attainable, being a measure to which all else of its kind must conform; as, the standard of weights and measures, of corn, or of cotton. The idea of virtue is the mental concept or image of virtue in general; the ideal of virtue is the mental concept or image of virtue in its highest conceivable perfection. Compare EXAMPLE; IDEA. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>accomplishment,</td><td>action,</td><td>doing,</td><td>fact,</td><td>practise,</td></tr> <tr><td>achievement,</td><td>attainment,</td><td>embodiment,</td><td>incarnation,</td><td>reality,</td></tr> <tr><td>act,</td><td>development,</td><td>execution,</td><td>performance,</td><td>realization.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>IDIOCY.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>fatuity,</td><td>foolishness,</td><td>incapacity,</td><td rowspan="2">stupidity.</td></tr> <tr><td>folly,</td><td>imbecility,</td><td>senselessness,</td></tr> </table> Idiocy is a state of mental unsoundness amounting almost or quite to total absence of understanding. Imbecility is a condition of mental weakness, which may or may not be as complete as that of idiocy, but is at least such as to incapacitate for the serious duties of life. Incapacity, or lack of legal qualification for certain acts, necessarily results from imbecility, but may also result from other causes, as from insanity or from age, sex, etc.; as, the incapacity of a minor to make a contract. Idiocy or imbecility is weakness of mind, while insanity is disorder or abnormal action of mind. Folly and foolishness denote a want of mental and often of moral balance. Fatuity is sometimes used as equivalent to idiocy, but more frequently signifies conceited and excessive foolishness or folly. Stupidity is dulness and slowness of mental action which may range all the way from lack of normal readiness to absolute imbecility. Compare INSANITY. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>acuteness,</td><td>brilliancy,</td><td>common sense,</td><td>sagacity,</td><td>soundness,</td></tr> <tr><td>astuteness,</td><td>capacity,</td><td>intelligence,</td><td>sense,</td><td>wisdom.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>IDLE.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>inactive,</td><td>inert,</td><td>slothful,</td><td>trifling,</td><td>unoccupied,</td></tr> <tr><td>indolent,</td><td>lazy,</td><td>sluggish,</td><td>unemployed,</td><td>vacant.</td></tr> </table> Idle in all uses rests upon its root meaning, as derived from the Anglo-Saxon idel, which signifies vain, empty, useless. Idle thus denotes not primarily the absence of action, but vain action—the absence of useful, effective action; the idle schoolboy may be very actively whittling his desk or tormenting his neighbors. Doing nothing whatever is the secondary meaning of idle. One may be temporarily idle of necessity; if he is habitually idle, it is his own fault. Lazy signifies indisposed to exertion, averse to labor; idleness is in fact; laziness is in disposition or inclination. A lazy person may chance to be employed in useful work, but he acts without energy or impetus. We speak figuratively of a lazy stream. The inert person seems like dead matter (characterized by inertia), powerless to move; the sluggish moves heavily and toilsomely; the most active person may sometimes find the bodily or mental powers sluggish. Slothful belongs in the moral realm, denoting a self-indulgent aversion to exertion. "The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth," Prov. xxvi, 15. Indolent is a milder term for the same quality; the slothful man hates action; the indolent man loves inaction. Compare VAIN. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>active,</td><td>busy,</td><td>diligent,</td><td>employed,</td><td>industrious,</td><td>occupied,</td><td>working.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>IGNORANT.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>ill-informed,</td><td>unenlightened,</td><td>unlearned,</td><td>untaught,</td></tr> <tr><td>illiterate,</td><td>uninformed,</td><td>unlettered,</td><td>untutored.</td></tr> <tr><td>uneducated,</td><td>uninstructed,</td><td colspan="2">unskilled,</td></tr> </table> Ignorant signifies destitute of education or knowledge, or lacking knowledge or information; it is thus a relative term. The most learned man is still ignorant of many things; persons are spoken of as ignorant who have not the knowledge that has become generally diffused in the world; the ignorant savage may be well instructed in matters of the field and the chase, and is thus more properly untutored than ignorant. Illiterate is without letters and the knowledge that comes through reading. Unlettered is similar in meaning to illiterate, but less absolute; the unlettered man may have acquired the art of reading and writing and some elementary knowledge; the uneducated man has never taken any systematic course of mental training. Ignorance is relative; illiteracy is absolute; we have statistics of illiteracy; no statistics of ignorance are possible. <h4>Antonyms:</h4> <table class="tba" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>educated,</td><td>instructed,</td><td>learned,</td><td>sage,</td><td>skilled,</td><td>trained,</td><td>well-informed,</td><td>wise.</td></tr> </table> <hr /> <h3>IMAGINATION.</h3> <h4>Synonyms:</h4> <table class="tbs" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr><td>fancy,</td><td>fantasy,</td><td>phantasy.</td></tr> </table> The old psychology treated of the Reproductive Imagination, which simply reproduces the images that the mind has in any way acquired, and the Productive Imagination which modifies and combines mental images so as to produce what is virtually new. To this Reproductive Imagination President Noah Porter and others have given the name of phantasy or fantasy (many psychologists preferring the former spelling). Phantasy or fantasy, so understood, presents numerous and varied images, often combining them into new forms with exceeding vividness, yet without any true constructive power, but with the mind adrift, blindly and passively following the laws of association, and with reason and will in torpor; the mental images being perhaps as varied and as vivid, but also as purposeless and unsystematized as the visual images in a kaleidoscope; such fantasy (often loosely called imagination) appears in dreaming, reverie, somnambulism, and intoxication. Fantasy in ordinary usage simply denotes capricious or erratic fancy, as appears in the adjective fantastic. Imagination and fancy differ from fantasy in bringing the images and their combinations under the control of the will; imagination is the broader and higher term, including fancy; imagination is the act or power of imaging or of reimaging objects of perception or thought, of combining the products of knowledge in modified, new, or ideal forms—the creative or constructive power of the mind; while fancy is the act or power of forming pleasing, graceful, whimsical, or odd mental images, or of combining them with little regard to rational processes of construction; imagination in its lower form. Both fancy and imagination recombine and modify mental images; either may work with the other's materials; imagination may glorify the tiniest flower; fancy may play around a mountain or a star; the one great distinction between them is that fancy is superficial, while imagination is deep, essential, spiritual. Wordsworth, who was the first clearly to draw the distinction between the fancy and the imagination, states it as follows: <div class="bq1">To aggregate and to associate, to evoke and to combine, belong as well to the imagination as to the fancy; but either the materials evoked and combined are different; or they are brought together under a different law, and for a different purpose. Fancy does not require that the materials which she makes use of should be susceptible of changes in their constitution from her touch; and where they admit of modification, it is enough for her purpose if it be slight, limited, and evanescent. Directly the reverse of these are the desires and demands of the imagination. She recoils from everything but the plastic, the pliant, and the indefinite. She leaves it to fancy to describe Queen Mab as coming: <div class="poem" style="width: 17em;"> 'In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman.' </div> Having to speak of stature, she does not tell you that her gigantic angel was as tall as Pompey's Pillar; much less that he was twelve cubits or twelve hundred cubits high; or that his dimensions equalled those of Teneriffe or Atlas; because these, and if they were a million times as high, it would be the same, are bounded. The expression is, 'His stature reached the sky!' the illimitable firmament!—When the imagination frames a comparison, ... a sense of the truth of the likeness from the moment that it is perceived grows—and continues to grow—upon the mind; the resemblance depending less upon outline of form and feature than upon expression and effect, less upon casual and outstanding than upon inherent and internal properties.[B] Poetical Works, Pref. to Ed. of 1815, p. 646, app. [T. & H. '51.] </div> So far as actual images are concerned, both fancy and imagination are limited to the materials furnished by the external world; it is remarkable that among all the representations of gods or demigods, fiends and demons, griffins and chimæras, the human mind has never invented one organ or attribute that is not presented in human or animal life; the lion may have a human head and an eagle's wings and claws, but in the various features, individually, there is absolutely nothing new. But imagination can transcend the work of fancy, and compare an image drawn from the external world with some spiritual truth born in the mind itself, or infuse a series of images with such a spiritual truth, molding them as needed for its more vivid expression. <div class="bq1">The imagination modifies images, and gives unity to variety; it sees all things in one.... There is the epic imagination, the perfection of which is in Milton; and the dramatic, of which Shakspeare is the absolute master. Coleridge Table Talk June 23, '34. </div> Fancy keeps the material image prominent and clear, and works not only with it, but for it; imagination always uses the material object as the minister of something greater than itself, and often almost loses the object in the spiritual idea with which she has associated it, and for which alone she values it. Fancy flits about the surface, and is airy and playful, sometimes petty and sometimes false; imagination goes to the heart of things, and is deep, earnest, serious, and seeks always and everywhere for essential truth. Fancy sets off, variegates, and decorates; imagination transforms and exalts. Fancy delights and entertains; imagination moves and thrills. Imagination is not only poetic or literary, but scientific, philosophical, and practical. By imagination the architect sees the unity of a building not yet begun, and the inventor sees the unity and varied interactions of a machine never yet constructed, even a unity that no human eye ever can see, since when the machine is in actual motion, one part may hide the connecting parts, and yet all keep the unity of the inventor's thought. By imagination a Newton sweeps sun, planets, and stars into unity with the earth and the apple that is drawn irresistibly to its surface, and sees them all within the circle of one grand law. Science, philosophy, and mechanical invention have little use for fancy, but the creative, penetrative power of imagination is to them the breath of life, and the condition of all advance and success. See also FANCY; IDEA. <div class="footnote">[B] The whole discussion from which the quotation is taken is worthy of, and will well repay, careful study. </div> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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